6 types of employees and how to motivate them

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Managing a team of employees can be tough, and it becomes even harder when your workforce is diverse. Different people respond differently to motivational methods and – if you want to sucessfully encourage all of your staff – you will need to learn what motivates different personality types and why. However, as daunting as that sounds, it’s easier than you think.

While many of us assume money is the biggest driver for success, scientific studies have shown otherwise. To understand performance based incentives, Princeton University’s Sam Glucksberg, published a study exploring the impact of financial reward on performance. The subjects were given a candle, a box of thumbtacks, and a box of matches and asked to fix the lit candle to the wall so that it will not drip wax onto the table below. The first group were told that the study’s purpose was to uncover the time people needed to find a solution for the problem, the second group were offered cash incentives relating to the speed at which they solved the problem. Interestingly, the second group took 3.5 minutes longer to solve the candle problem.

So, if money is not the sole driver of performance, what is? Research shows that our emotions play a big part in determining how hard we work. According to Chris Roebuck an employee’s motivation to perform is 57% rational and 43% emotional, with 80% of their emotional motivation directly controlled by their manager.1

Isabel Briggs Myers identified 16 personality types, with the help of psychologist Carl Jung’s theories, based on the preferences of different individuals. It’s safe to assume that your team members are either an introvert or extrovert, judgemental or perceptive, left brain or right brain. By identifying their main personality traits, you’ll find it easier to identify their individual needs.

Our latest infographic below explores six of these personality traits, as well as what motivates each of them most effectively.